Canadian wrestler Chris Benoit had elevated testosterone in his body, but there is no evidence of recent artificial steroid use at the time of his death, officials say.

"This level of testosterone indicates that he had been using testosterone some time prior to the day that he died," Dr. Kris Sperry, chief medical examiner for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said Tuesday. "There were no other steroids, or artificial steroid-like drugs that were found in his urine."

Benoit also had the sedative Xanax in his system and the painkiller Hydrocodone as did his murdered wife Nancy, Sperry said at the news conference held in Decatur, Ga.

Their son Daniel also had Xanax in his body.

"It is our opinion that Daniel Benoit was sedated at the time that he was murdered," Sperry said.

The Xanax level in Daniel's body was "relatively elevated, and also, Xanax is not a drug that would normally be given to a child for routine purposes," Sperry said.

In Nancy's case, all the drugs were at a therapeutic level, he said, but noted that her body was decomposing and that would affect the ability to interpret results reliably.

Nancy also had a blood-alcohol level of .184. "All of this alcohol could be due to the decompositional process," Sperry said.

Police say Benoit killed his wife and seven-year-old son in their home near Atlanta last month and then hanged himself on the cable of a weight machine.

Authorities found anabolic steroids inside the gated home, leading officials to wonder if the drugs played a role in the killings.

Toxicology tests were conducted to determine if steroids or other drugs were present in Benoit's body.

Blood-alcohol tests were also conducted, as were chemical tests on the bodies of his wife and son.

Physician charged

Following the slayings, federal authorities arrested Benoit's personal physician, Dr. Phil Astin, with improperly prescribing painkillers and other drugs to patients other than Benoit. He has pleaded not guilty.

Investigators have raided Astin's office several times since the deaths, seizing prescription records and other medical documents.

Before he was charged, Astin told The Associated Press he prescribed testosterone for Benoit, a longtime friend, in the past.

Astin would not say what medications he prescribed when Benoit visited his office June 22, the day police believe Benoit killed his wife.

On Saturday, three weeks after Nancy and Daniel Benoit were murdered, friends and family paid their last respects at a private funeral service in Florida. Nancy Benoit's family lives in the state.

Benoit was a World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) superstar with a wholesome, family-man image. Despite that appearance, however, his wife filed for divorce in 2003, alleging "cruel treatment.''

She later dropped the complaint, as well as a request for a restraining order in which she alleged Benoit threatened her and smashed furniture.

Nancy was a wrestling stage manager who married Benoit in 2000.

Benoit's father has said private services for him were to be held in Canada. It's not known whether those services have taken place.

WWE owner Vince McMahon, who did not show up to the funeral of Nancy Daniel, has urged the public not to assume steroids were behind the double murder-suicide.

The father of dead WWE star Chris Benoit says that it might have been the effect of multiple concussions, not steroids, that drove Chris to kill his wife and son and then hung himself.

Michael Benoit told Diane Sawyer on this morning's "Good Morning America" that after the tragedy, he turned over part of his son's brain to Julian Bailes, a neurologist at the Sports Legacy Institute. Tissue analysis, said Bailes, showed that Benoit's brain tissue revealed damage similar to those of Alzheimer's patients, suggesting that he was suffering from a form of dementia, which could have led him to snap.

Benoit's dad told Sawyer that his son suffered "multiple concussions," and Dr. Bailes said that just three could lead to serious consequences. Whatever the case, said Michael Benoit, "The person that did this is not the man we know and love."

Originally posted by Headache in a Suitcase the entire steroid angle of this story is a ginormous jump to conclusions...

first off, this was not a roid rage... this was done over a matter of days... it was deliberate. it was not a moment of rage.

and as for the kid taking HGH... it is something that can be prescribed by a doctor.

is it possible that, despite the fact that he's passed every steroid test he's been given, that benoit was, in fact, using steroids and the after effects, mood swings, rage, etc. etc. all snowballed into this tragic tragic event? sure, of course there is... but for pete's sake, can we at least wait for a toxicology report before we jump to that conclusion and all that comes with it?

ATLANTA - Pro wrestler Chris Benoit suffered brain damage from his years in the ring that could help explain why he killed his wife, son and himself, a doctor who studied Benoit’s brain said Wednesday.

The analysis by doctors affiliated with the Sports Legacy Institute suggests that repeated concussions could have contributed to the killings at Benoit’s suburban Atlanta home.

An Emory University neurologist not involved in the testing agreed that multiple concussions can cause long-term brain injuries, but she stressed that “what types of symptoms that causes is still very unclear.”

The wrestler’s father, Michael Benoit, told reporters Wednesday that he knows his son had concussions because his son told him so, but he also said he knows of no medical records or records kept by the wrestling league to support the diagnosis.

Steroid use also has lingered as a theory behind the killings, since anabolic steroids were found in Chris Benoit’s home and tests conducted by authorities showed Benoit had roughly 10 times the normal level of testosterone in his system when he died.

The institute, which researches the long-term effects of concussions, coordinated the testing using samples of Benoit’s brain tissue provided by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

The Waltham, Mass.-based institute’s president is former pro wrestler Christopher Nowinski, who has said he had to quit the ring after a kick to the head. Nowinski still has ties with World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., which runs the league he and Benoit were in.

A lawyer for Stamford, Conn.-based WWE did not immediately return a call Wednesday seeking comment. The company has maintained steroid use did not cause Benoit to snap.

Despite the results of the institute’s tests, there was no way to know for sure if Benoit’s concussions contributed to the murder-suicide, said Dr. Robert Cantu, a member of the institute who also is chief of neurosurgery service at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass.

“Whether it is the sole factor I believe is speculation and I will not go there,” Cantu said by phone.

The level of brain damage Benoit had can cause depression and irrational behavior, Cantu said.

Benoit’s brain showed the same degenerative processes that doctors working for the institute found in the brains of two men who had played pro football and committed suicide, Cantu said. There were abnormal protein deposits caused by trauma to Benoit’s brain, Cantu said.

There’s no evidence that steroid use causes such protein deposits, Cantu said, though he noted the issue has not been exhaustively studied.

Investigators allowed the institute to test Benoit’s brain tissue with the permission of his father, who lives near Edmonton in Ardrossan, Alberta.

Dr. Wendy Wright, an intensive care neurologist at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, said suffering multiple concussions can lead to behavioral changes. But she said, “This isn’t something you would expect to see turn on one day and have someone fly into a vicious rage.”

Benoit’s wife had filed a complaint in 2003 alleging “cruel treatment” and that he broke some furniture in their home, but investigators have disclosed no other evidence of violence by Benoit outside the ring prior to the killings. The wife’s complaint was later withdrawn. His father also said the wrestler seemed perfectly normal just a week before the killings.

Michael Benoit said Wednesday that he agreed to the testing of his son’s brain because murder-suicide was so out of character. He also disclosed that after the killings, he discovered a diary written by his son that showed his son was having problems.

“After reading the diary, I would have thought it was written by someone who was extremely disturbed at the time,” Michael Benoit said.

He did not elaborate, but he did say a friend told him that prior to the murder-suicide, Chris Benoit had been wearing a rosary, which he said was also out of character.

“I think it’s the extreme that is in the wrestling industry today,” he told reporters. “The human skull is not built to get hit by a chair or something.”

The father said he has not discussed with his attorney whether to take any legal action against the WWE or anyone else in the case.

Nowinski, who works for the WWE on its initiative to encourage young people to vote, said concussions can happen in pro wrestling even though many of the moves are staged.